A carpet or rug, comprising a plurality of fibers or tufts of fibers woven with a first or primary fibrous backing material, is treated with an aqueous curable adhesive composition such as a rubber latex which serves to bind those portions of the fibers or tufts woven into the backing to the backing and is then laminated by pressure to a secondary fibrous or woven backing to force the adhesive at least in part into the first backing and about the loops of the fibers and at least in part into the second backing. The resulting composite laminate is then heated or dried to remove the water and cure the adhesive to bind the ends of the tufts or fibers to the primary backing and the primary backing to the secondary backing to form an integral laminate.
Attempts have been made to incorporate rubber compounding processing and/or extender oils into these latex carpet backing adhesives to reduce costs. However, to incorporate useful amounts of these processing oils into the latices has required significant quantities of various surfactants which have had a deleterious effect on the adhesive properties of the latices.
It, therefore, is an object of this invention to avoid the difficulties alluded to above and to provide a method of oil extending a latex adhesive useful, among other things, for carpet backing purposes without appreciably reducing its adhesive properties.
It is another object of this invention to provide a grafted rubber processing and/or extender oil which can be used for extending latex adhesives and for other purposes.
A further object is to provide a carpet having a backing secured to the fibers of the carpet by means of an oil extended adhesive.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description and working examples.